How long
does it take to write a novel and have it published? Here’s my story.
I started writing Galaxy’s Game when I was ten. I didn’t know it was going to be a novel at the time. I carried on writing it on and off till I was twenty, all by hand in exercise books. I rediscovered it when I was thirty, and rewrote it on my laptop. It amounted to 80% of a novel. A few years later my two boys, young teens at the time, discovered it on the hard drive and loved it, so I was inspired to finally finish it when I was about forty. After submitting it to various places and wondering what to do with it for several more years, it was accepted for publication as a ten-part serial on a long-running webzine. Sadly the webzine ceased publication with only four parts published. So eventually I decided to self-publish it via KDP. I commissioned this fabulous cover and this week it’s available on Amazon. Forty-three years after I started writing it.
After the disappointment last year of Aphelion magazine ceasing publication having only published parts 1-4 of Galaxy's Game, I spent some time disconsolately wondering what to do until I was encouraged to give KDP a go. So I commissioned this fabulous cover, formatted the manuscript, and now the Kindle and paperback editions are both available on Amazon.
It's only taken 43 years to get to this point!
The Spanish translation of my dieselpunk story A Breath of Fresh Air is out today at Argentinian webzine Microficciones y Cuentos. This is the first translation of this story, which was originally published a year ago in Black Cat Weekly magazine.
The Romanian translation of my fifth and final Yorick story, Ogres, Beavers and Other Mythical Creatures, is out now in the new issue of Galaxia 42 magazine. That's all five stories now available in Romanian and Hungarian.
Following on from the Welsh and Spanish translations, the original English version of my very short story Never Talk to Strangers is out today at daily microfiction webzine Quotidian Bagatelle - my second story at that wonderfully-named venue.
The Farsi translation of Romeo and the Robots is out now at Metaphor Space, my third story in Farsi and the the fourth language for this story. My story depends on knowledge of one of Shakespeare's most well-known stories, and so far it translates well around the world.
My very short story Gone With the Window is also out today at the fabulously-named Quotidian Bagatelle. This story was previously published in Scots a few years back, and is one of two stories of mine that are scheduled to appear on this daily webzine in the next few weeks.